Modern European expansion developed mainly due to the need for gold and silver and the search for products from the East, once the traditional routes to the East were controlled by the Turks.
The two forerunners of modern colonisation were Portugal and Castile. In fact, the Iberian Peninsula was the European region best prepared at the time for overseas expansion.
The two most important kingdoms of the peninsula differences in their expansion model, mainly determined by their particular historical development. Portugal shaped and defined its territory before Castile, which underwent a crisis in the late Middle Ages that slowed down its expansion. While Portugal and Aragon expanded towards the south of the peninsula at the expense of the Islamic kingdoms and, once they had conquered the Atlantic or Mediterranean coast (in the 14th century), they turned towards trade and the sea, Castile continued to fight against the Moors until the discovery of America.
Thus, by the 15th century Portugal had a long seafaring and fishing tradition. Its experience in sailing the Atlantic and the Mediterranean allowed it to develop the maritime techniques necessary to sustain its overseas expansion. On the other hand, Lisbon, one of the largest European cities of the time, had important commercial connections with northern Europe and the Mediterranean, with a large number of seafarers and merchants, especially the Genoese.
Castile had been involved in a process of constant progress for centuries, based on territorial conquest. However, the southwest coast of Andalusia, with its population, seafarers, capital and technology, played a fundamental role in the beginning of overseas expansion. Seville was an important commercial centre in a commercially and maritime developed area.
Portuguese expansion
Portugal was a pioneer in European colonial expansion, first heading south towards Africa. Although the idea of a crusade against Islam initially occupied an important place among the motivations for expansion, trying to make contact with the mythical Christian African kingdoms (the kingdom of Preste John) and attacking the Ottomans from behind, economic interests were also very present; trying to deal with situations such as the shortage of precious metals in the 15th century and the fact that the trade route from Europe to the East was hampered by Turkish expansion.
Moved by the idea of a crusade, the search for African gold and Asian spices and thanks to the importance acquired by the bourgeoisie with the Avis dynasty, Portugal expanded under Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), taking Ceuta in 1415.
Beyond its significance in the struggle against the Islamic world, the capture of Ceuta makes sense in the context of the importance of the North African cities, where grain and gold were accumulated. They were the arrival points for the trans-Saharan trade routes linking the Mediterranean world with gold-producing West Africa.
The expansion into Africa promoted by Henry obtained a bull of crusade in 1418. Portugal moved down the west coast of Africa towards the sources of gold, ivory and slaves that formed part of the trans-Saharan trade.
In its southward expansion, Portugal focused on the Atlantic (conquest of Madeira 1419-1425, the Azores 1427-1452 and the exploration of Cape Verde 1461-1462) and on the mainland (the disaster of Tangiers in 1437 and the conquest of Arcila and Alcazarseguer in 1461).
In 1434, the Portuguese Gil Eanes crossed Cape Bojador (Western Sahara), a place considered insurmountable in medieval tradition, which was a fundamental step in expansion. From then on, the advance was unstoppable.
In 1444, the first direct capture of black slaves in Cape Verde took place for the first time, in contrast to earlier practices of purchase. In 1448, the first overseas factory was founded on the island of Arguin (Mauritania). 1468 and 1473, Guinea and Fernando Poo, Príncipe and São Tomé were reached.
In 1482 Portugal established the fortress of San Jorge de Mina (Ghana), consolidating Portuguese trade in the Gulf of Guinea, and in 1483 it reached the Congo, establishing the first colonial government.
In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope (to reach India) and in 1498 Vasco da Gama completed the desired route to the Indies via the East by reaching Calicut (Kozhikode, India).
Once the desired route to Asia was achieved, Portugal began to establish itself in the area: Goa was conquered in 1509 and Hormuz and Malacca in 1515. Timor was occupied 1512 and 1515, the Moluccas 1521 and 1522 and Macau 1554 and 1557.
Thanks to these milestones, the Portuguese empire was built up, based on the creation of fortresses and factories in strategic ports. Brazil, discovered for Portugal in 1500 by Álvares Cabral (months earlier, Yáñez Pinzón had discovered it for Castile), was not of interest at first, the first settlements being Saõ Vicente (1432), Pernambuco (1537) or Bahia (1549), where a red dye called ‘Palo Brasil’ was exploited. Later, settlements and agricultural production were encouraged, in particular sugar cane cultivated by slaves from Angola.
Despite its pioneering character, the main part of the Portuguese Asian empire fell into Dutch hands in the mid-17th century, and in the same century the Dutch attacked the American possessions.
The Portuguese colonial model
Some of the basic elements that characterise the Portuguese colonial model are the factorias and the capitanias donatárias.
The factorias (feitorias) are establishments on islands, where a fort was built and a garrison was left. From these, the commercial representatives, or factors, traded with the natives and the Portuguese ships unloaded their cargo and exchanged it for other cargo. The factoría made it possible to maintain a permanent commercial presence without having to conquer a territory.
This , used mainly on the African and Indian coasts, had already been used by the Venetians, Genoese and Catalans in the Mediterranean. However, the trade practised by the Portuguese in Africa consisted of bartering trinkets for slaves and raw materials, a model that also characterised the commercial relations of the Castilians.
The capitanías donatarias, applied in the Atlantic islands and in America, followed a different model. When it came to colonising a region, the initial expenses were met by private individuals. Thus, the nobles paid for the transport of settlers and economic activities in exchange for the granting of privileges by the Crown, receiving the hereditary title of captains and lords (donataries) of their lands, economic concessions and political autonomy in exchange for governing and developing their territory.
Spanish expansion
Castilian expansion was later than Portuguese expansion but covered a larger number of territories, mainly in America. The Treaty of Alcaçovas-Toledo (1479) confirmed Portuguese rights in Africa and Castilian sovereignty over the Canary Islands, its first overseas possessions, which were not fully subdued until the period 1478-1496. The conquest of the islands was fundamental to the process of expansion, both because of their later position as an essential stopover to America and because of their status as a laboratory for colonial experiments. In this way, the practices carried out in the Canary Islands served as a link the methods of the ‘reconquest’ of the Iberian Peninsula and the Conquest of America.
Since Portugal was already expanding into Africa and trying to reach India from there, Columbus' project to reach the Indies via the West was welcomed by the Catholic Monarchs.
In October of the same year, Columbus reached the island of Guanahani (Bahamas), and later Cuba and Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), considering his voyage to have ended successfully in the Indies.
Following Portugal's claim to these territories, in 1493 the Catholic Monarchs obtained the Inter caetera bulls from Alexander VI, which granted Castile everything within 100 Spanish sea leagues west of Cape Verde. They were subsequently forced to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, whereby the demarcation line the Castilian and Portuguese possessions was 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands.
The Crown considered the new territories as its personal domains, not as colonies of Castile, and sought to apply the existing institutions of the Kingdom. Thus, in order to organise trade with the Indies and the process of colonisation and management of the overseas territories, the Casa de Contratación was created in Seville in 1503.
As the Crown's advisory body for the government and administration of the new territories, the Junta de Indias was created in 1511, which in 1524 was renamed the Consejo Real Supremo de Indias (Supreme Royal Council of the Indies). The Council appointed the main officials, organised fleets and expeditions, trade and finances in the Indies.
Columbus' next voyages (4 in total) led to the discovery of new islands (Dominica and others in the West Indies, Jamaica, Trinidad), reaching the mouth of the Orinoco in 1498. In 1502, he sailed along the coasts of what are now Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. At the same time as Columbus made these voyages, other explorations were organised: Ojeda and Américo Vespuccio in Venezuela and Guayana (1499) and Yáñez Pinzón in Brazil (1500), and the lands discovered were already considered a new continent.
It was from the island of Hispaniola that the colonisation of the Caribbean was organised in later years, with Puerto Rico (1508), Jamaica (1509) and Cuba (1511) as outstanding cases. Cuba later served as a platform for the assault on the continent.
The conquest of Panama by Vasco Núñez de Balboa was the first in the new continent, who in 1513 discovered the Pacific Ocean, thus initiating a race to find a passage to this new ocean that would allow access to the East Indies.
Continental expansion initially concentrated on regions that possessed material wealth and where sedentary peoples were located, with little interest in other regions.
The followed by the Spanish conquistadors was the model of ‘relay stations’, i.e. each new conquest served as a base of operation for the future occupation of virgin lands. A group of powerful people proposed the acquisition of such lands, and the local governor was the one who had to approve the project and help in the organisation of the project, motivated by his own interests. Once the occupation had been successfully completed, the expeditionary chief would turn to the crown, from whom he would obtain a separate governorship.
The expeditionary forms, on the other hand, were based on the association of companies, which were aimed at the personal enrichment of the capital partners. The company was formed by powerful encomenderos leading the bulk of the expedition, made up of men who had to pay their own expenses, saddles and weapons, and who received no salary (because of this, the men of the expeditions never liked to call themselves soldiers, to which it must be added that only a tiny percentage of them had any military experience), fought in the hope of a share of the riches and early enrichment.
Thus, 1519 and 1522 Hernán Cortés conquered Mexico, and Guatemala and Honduras were conquered 1522 and 1524 by Alvarado and Olid respectively, founding the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Pizarro did the same with Peru 1532 and 1536, creating the Viceroyalty of Peru, from which the present-day Ecuador and Chile were conquered. Colombia was subsequently conquered (1536-1538), creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada.
The search for glory and new riches led to the explorations of Hernando de Soto 1539 and 1542 in areas of the present-day United States (Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, South and North Carolina, Tennessee and Oklahoma) and of Vázquez de Coronado in 1541 (Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas). Other conquests, such as those of Florida, California and present-day Argentina and Uruguay, were initially of less interest.
Apart from the conquest of the new continent, Spain was still seeking to reach the East Indies. Magellan-Elcano's circumnavigation of the earth in 1522 meant that the Spaniards arrived in Asia, encountered the Portuguese and had to sign the Treaty of Saragossa (1529), in which a demarcation line was once again established, this time at the 17th degree of longitude east of the Moluccas. The treaty did not prevent Legazpi from conquering the Philippine Islands, which were in Portuguese territory, in 1568.
The Spanish colonial model
In the Caribbean phase of the conquest, two different models of exploitation of the new lands coexisted. On the one hand, Columbus, those close to him, as well as the Crown itself and many of the Andalusian sailors, because of their links to the Genoese-Portuguese model of maritime trade and exploitation, conceived of the application of the of forts and factories. In contrast to this model was that of the bulk of the Spanish colonists and conquerors, who were linked to the Iberian tradition of total conquest, installation and permanent government.
In this context, some people, including Columbus, tried to promote and benefit from any interesting enterprise, focusing their attention on the immediate benefit of obtaining gold. However, if in Africa it could be obtained through trade, in the Caribbean the work of extraction had to be undertaken, for which, through the encomienda, indigenous labour was used.
The conquest, the enslavement of the Indians and the encomienda were criticised by a former encomendero, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas.
Columbus was accused of misrule, dismissed and arrested in 1500, and the attempted development of the factory model of the Mediterranean tradition gave way to the Iberian tradition of total conquest.
The Caribbean gold were intensively exploited, providing significant riches, but by 1515 they seemed to be depleted and the indigenous population was drastically reduced. As a result, the Caribbean economy shifted to sugar production and African slaves began to be imported for labour.
Subsequent continental territorial conquests were the result of several factors. On the one hand, there was dissatisfaction with the lack of expectations and rivalry among the Spanish underdogs. On the other hand, the enormous decline of the indigenous labour force due to the diseases brought by the first Europeans led the colonists to search for new lands, influenced by the existence of precious metals, gold and silver, the first source of income.
The encomienda is the characteristic institution of Spanish colonisation in modern times. It was an attempt to gain access to the services and products of the indigenous people through the control of existing local powers. This began as soon as the conquest was carried out in the Caribbean, where ‘repartimientos’ were granted to the Indians of the area, who retained ownership of their lands. The indigenous chiefs, however, were responsible for channelling the indigenous labour for the benefit of the encomendero.
English expansion
Under Henry VII and after Columbus proved the existence of a westward route, England sought to reach Asia via the North Atlantic with Giovanni Caboto in 1497 and 1498, exploring Nova Scotia (Canada). In the early 16th century, English fisheries were established in the area.
In a century of continuous improvement of England's naval capabilities, it was not until the reign of Elizabeth I that true overseas expansion took place.
In 1576-78 Martin Frobisher, trying to find the north-west passage to Asia, reached Greenland.
In 1578-80 Francis Drake circumnavigated the world, landing in California.
1585 and 1587 John Davis made three voyages trying to locate the Northwest Passage, obtaining extensive information from Greenland, Baffin and Labrador.
In 1583 Humphrey Gilbert founded a settlement in Newfoundland, annexing it to the Crown, and in 1587 Walter Raleigh did the same in Virginia, although the settlements created by both had to be abandoned.
It was not until 1607 that the first stable settlement in North America was created, and the first English settlements were promoted by private companies.
In 1607 Jamestown (Virginia) was founded under the auspices of the London Company, which found only tobacco cultivation as a source of wealth.
In 1620, on the famous Mayflower voyage, New Plymouth (Massachusetts) was founded under the auspices of the New England Company.
Conneticut, Rhode Island, Maryland and Carolina followed 1630 and 1642. In addition to new foundations, English expansion in North America also took place at the expense of territories conquered from the Dutch in the 17th century (New York, 1664) and from the French in the 18th century (Canada, Nova Scotia, Ohio, part of the Mississippi).
Further south, from the end of the 16th century, England tried to plunder Spanish possessions and fleets with their wealth. It was not until the 17th century that its presence in the Caribbean was consolidated, with the conquest of islands such as Bermuda (1612), Barbados (1624), Jamaica (1655) and the Bahamas (1718). These tropical colonies were of great interest to England because of their commercial value.
The English presence in Asia began to take shape with the founding in 1600 of the East India Company, whose first establishment in India was Surat (1613). From that time onwards, the British presence in the area increased, founding the fort at Madras in 1639 and taking over Bombay in 1668.
The company's expansionist policy led to warfare and the occupation of Calcutta in 1696. After the decline of the Mughal Empire (1712-1754), and the conquest of Bengal in 1757, the British occupation of India began.
The British presence in Australia and New Zealand began with James Cook's major voyages of exploration in the second half of the 18th century. The founding of the penal colony of Sydney in 1778 and the colony of New South Wales in 1788 marked the beginning of the colonisation of Australia, and from 1826 the first settlers arrived in New Zealand.
Dutch expansion
Before gaining independence, Dutch ships carried spices from Lisbon to the rest of Europe. However, in around 1580, when they rebelled against Philip II, the ruler who also took over the Portuguese throne at the same time, they could no longer do so, so they sought to sail directly to the Indies.
1595-97 a Dutch fleet reached the islands of Java and Bali, returning laden with pepper. From then until 1602 numerous fleets returned to Asia.
In 1602 the United East India Company was founded, a union of several Dutch companies forming a private monopoly. The company gradually established factories in Java and the Moluccas, and founded its headquarters in the area, Batavia (1619). The East India Company continued to expand progressively throughout the 17th century at the expense of the Portuguese, Spanish and English, founding factories in the Persian Gulf (Hormuz, 1623) and Formosa (1624), and taking Malacca in 1641 and Ceylon around the same time, until it came to control Java and the Moluccas in the remainder of the century.
The Dutch presence in Asia was strong enough at this time to discover Tasmania and New Zealand for Europeans 1642-1643, as well as trade with the Japanese (Deshima Islet).
This company also established bases on the islands of St Helena (1633) and Mauritius (1638) (which it later lost to the English and French), as well as at the Cape (1652), which gave it access to the East Indies while avoiding enemy fleets.
In addition to his interest in contacting Asia by the eastern route, he promoted Henry Hudson's voyage in search of the Northwest Passage (1609), and as a result of his explorations in North America, New Holland was established at the mouth of the Hudson River.
1614 and 1617, Gorée Island in Cape Verde was controlled and settlement began in Guiana (mouth of the Essequibo).
In 1621, the West India Company was founded, which took over New Holland and Essequibo in America and Gorée in Africa. This company promoted various expeditions against Brazil, which failed, and in North America, notably the founding of New Amsterdam (New York) in 1625.
Later success was achieved in Brazil with the conquest of Pernambuco in 1630, but the rebellion of the Portuguese colonists meant that by 1654 they lost their possessions in Brazil.
In addition, in 1634 it seized several islands off Venezuela (Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire) from Spain and later several others in the Lesser Antilles, culminating its presence in the area with the conquest of Suriname by 1667.
French expansion
The French colonial adventure began with Francis I, who sponsored several voyages to find the Northwest Passage. Thus in 1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed northern Florida and Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and Jacques Cartier 1534 and 1542 sailed up the St Lawrence and reached Montreal. It was at this time that French presence in the fisheries of the area began.
After failed attempts to settle in Brazil (1555-1560) and Florida (1562-1565), it was not until the 17th century that the first settlements on the new continent were established. Port-Royal was founded in Acadia in 1605 and Quebec on the St. Lawrence in 1608.
These territories were called New France and were noted for their fur trade. In 1627, the New France Company was created to exploit them.
The French presence in the area grew with milestones such as the founding of Montreal in 1642 and the arrival in Illinois in 1667. In 1682, La Salle travelled up the Mississippi and took possession of the region, which he called Louisiana.
But France was also interested in the rest of the continent. In 1624 it began settling in French Guiana, in 1627 on the island of St. Christopher, and from 1635 onwards it incorporated Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, Grenada, Tobago and St. Lucia. During the second half of the 17th century, French settlements in the western part of Hispaniola caused that territory to pass into French hands (Haiti). The Caribbean possessions were devoted to the cultivation of sugar using slave labour.
In Africa and Asia, the presence was more limited. From 1624 there were settlements in Senegal, in the Indian Ocean in 1638 the Bourbon Island was occupied, and from 1642 there were settlements in Madagascar. A first settlement in India (Surat) was obtained as early as 1667, followed by others such as Pondichery (1674) and Chandernagor (1689), as well as Mahé (Sheychelles, 1742).
However, with the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), France lost Acadia, Newfoundland and Hudson Bay. It then lost Canada in 1763 and, after ceding it at the same time, sold Louisiana in 1803. In the 18th century, a time of great voyages of exploration in the Pacific, several islands were occupied, including Tahiti (1768).
- The English, Dutch and French colonial model
The colonisation model in these countries was based on a of large companies with a monopoly on trade and a right of sovereignty over a territory. This was in exchange for supplying the metropolis, maintaining sea lanes and sometimes evangelisation and colonisation. This model of large companies corresponded to the mercantilist doctrine of the time, which gave great importance to the accumulation of capital and government interventionism in order to promote a positive balance of trade, favouring exports and limiting imports, which translated into an absolute monopoly at the colonial level. Thus, the colony was not recognised as having any interests of its own; it served the metropolis and its interests, supplying it with raw materials and as a market for its manufactures.
There were several models in the English colonisation of North America: on the one hand there were Crown colonies, run by a governor and with local assemblies; on the other hand there were charter colonies, entrusted by the Crown by patent or charter to a company, which obtained extensive administrative powers and a monopoly of trade; and there were also proprietary colonies, given in property to a proprietor, with quasi-sovereign powers. These last two models converged into Crown colonies.